January 23, 2013

Blogging tips ~ Photo Backgrounds

One day I found myself at Michael's, knee-deep in the scrapbooking section. I had the idea for this video for one of my songs... it would be still-motion, and I would use scrapbooking paper to make little cutouts that move around. But once I got home, it dawned on me that I'd need probably 1,000 stills for that video, and maybe five times that many individual cutouts. It seemed overwhelming and impossible. So I forgot about it, and abandoned the paper I had bought.

But my trip and the money spent was not in vain. For it turned out the scrapbooking paper was useful for something else- photo backgrounds.

Having any kind of background for your photos is always a good idea. If you have an extra few seconds, it can produce a variety of of looks, depending on what you want. Want vintagey? Use vintage fabric. Wanna go clean? A white sheet of paper will do. I've used a lot of different things as backgrounds... even my own clothing in a pinch! But the scrapbooking paper has been very useful to me.

I love some of the more cutsey patterns, not to mention different colors and textures. They can convey a different feel. Does today feel like a green day....

Or a purple one?

Here's another interesting question- how do these different colors and designs convey different messages about what I'm shooting? What do we think of when looking at green, as opposed to purple? It's interesting to think about.

Perhaps I should've used the green background for the above photo, as the purple dots makes the girliness way too overt. Then again, I favored the purple with the espresso over the green... I thought the dots gave the photo subject some depth, and the color was more vibrant.

40 comments

Must admit, I love the dots too. And must also admit, I thought the photo backgrounds were digital at first! Amazing how something as simple as paper can make such a difference to a photo, when you take it, rather than when you edit it!

I love it! I just recently saw another blogger mention this and I thought it was a great idea! I just did it once this week for a photo of mine and loved how it looked. Def something I'll incorporate more often now, too!

I remember when I first started my Etsy shop, I went CRAZY with the backgrounds, colors, patterns, etc. Now it's super toned down as I think it just took away from my items but fun backgrounds still work for a lot of things. I think the first pic of this post is my fave. :)

oh, i can totally understand why you toned it down for your etsy shop... the focus should be on the product, not the background paper! i was thinking my favorite was the last photo with all the girly stuff :)

This is such a great idea! I've been struggling with having too much in the background when I take the occasional photos of food, crafts, etc. I think I have some extra scrapbooking paper and cloth lying around, I'm definitely going to have to give this a shot!

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